The New America Foundation is hosting an event this evening that focuses on the state of civil liberties and human rights in Russia under the Medvedev/Putin regime.

This is a guest note by National Security Network Deputy Director Joel Rubin who is blogging this week from the famed Herziliya Conference on behalf of Democracy Arsenal, Huffington Post and The Washington Note. Rubin can also be followed on Twitter @JoelMartinRubin.

As Iraq tilts towards March 7th elections, there are disconcerting trends unfolding inside the Maliki-run government that portend serious problems and potentially civil war in the not distant future.

The New America Foundation/American Strategy Program is hosting an event TODAY from 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm featuring Dr. Andreas Schockenhoff, Member of the German Bundestag and Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group. Dr. Schockenhoff will provide a European perspective on NATO’s strategy in Afghanistan following last week’s conference in London.

(President Barack Obama talks with Mike Froman, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs, during the afternoon session of the G-20 Pittsburgh Summit at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Penn., Sept. 25, 2009. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Former Special Assistant to U.N.

Hot off the press from the White House. . . Bills signed into law by the President today, Friday, 29 January 2010: H.R. 1817, which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 116 North West Street in Somerville, Tennessee, as the “John S. Wilder Post Office Building,” H.R.

This is a guest note by Ralph Gomory, one of the nation’s leading thinkers about technology, innovation, and the productivity health of national economies. Gomory previously served as IBM’s Senior Vice President for Science and Technology and subsequently as the immediate past president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Neocon chronicler Jacob Heilbrunn, who like many realist foreign policy mavens supported President Obama’s candidacy, is unsure of what President Obama actually wants to achieve at this point. What are his priorities? What is he really gambling assets to achieve? Read the entire piece (which admittedly does quote a line of mine).

A DC insider close enough to Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner shared with me a vignette in which someone suggested to him that he find a way to diversify the “image” of his relationships with the economy community and broaden it to include people like Elizabeth Warren.

Former Senator Chuck Hagel‘s strong statement made in a Brookings speech some years ago that the United States could not afford a false choice between our strong relationship with Israel on one side and Arab and Palestinian interests on the other continues to be the sensible frame through which I look at the region and…